iPad Screen Size Guide & Web Design Tips

When Apple initially launched it’s iPhone & iPad lines many designers specifically targeted those device sizes in their website designs. This guide will help you understand how to make your site look it’s best when displayed on these devices.

I’d recommend first using responsive design techniques to try and pick breakpoints based on your content and not to a specific device, as sizes are always changing. For example when the navigation no longer works horizontally it should adapt.

If you know that a number of your users are on particular devices (or you’re designing for a use-case targeted at an iPad specifically) it makes sense to take extra consideration of their design sizes. The iPad screen size below will help you do this effectively.

iPad Versions

iPad Air & 9.7in iPad Pro – also includes original iPad line (e.g. iPad 4)

Large iPad Pro – larger 12.9in Pro

iPad Screen Measurements

There are a few different values to consider when looking at the iPad screen sizes. I’m going to get these values defined here so the chart below makes more sense:

iPad Display Size (inches)This is diagonal measure of the screen, from corner to corner, just like you’d measure a TV.

iPad Screen Size (points)These points are the size that the device is using for coordinates. If you’re designing for the web (using CSS or JavaScript) these values will be helpful. The iPad uses Retina screens which have a higher pixel density. This means they take the larger iPad resolution (mentioned below) and compress those pixels into a smaller space to make the image look sharper.

iPad ResolutionThis is the full number of pixels that are being rendered. This is the value you get when you apply the multiplier (1x, 2x, 3x) the device uses to the screen size in points. If you’re creating an image and want it at the max resolution, this is the size you’d use. I’ve also written an article on Retina images if you’d like to learn more.

iPad Screen Size Comparison

This image shows the browser screen size of the iPads for use when writing CSS. See the table below for all the measurements of each tablet. I’m only going to specify the latest generations of each line of iPads. If you design with those specs in mind you’ll do a good job of targeting older models.

iPad Mini

iPad Air & Small Pro

Large iPad Pro

Display Size

7.9 in

9.7 in

12.9 in

Screen Size

1024 x 768 points

1024 x 768 points

1366 x 1024 points

Rendered Pixels

2048 x 1536 (@2x)

2048 x 1536 (@2x)

2732 x 2048 (@2x)

Pixels Per Inch (PPI)

326

264

264

Browser Size Portrait

768 x 959 px(768 x 927* / 768 x 1004**)

768 x 959 px(768 x 927* / 768 x 1004**)

1024 x 1301 px(1024 x 1269* / 1024 x 1346**)

Browser Size Landscape

1024 x 703 px(1024 x 671* / 1024 x 748**)

1024 x 703 px(1024 x 671* / 1024 x 748**)

1366 x 959 px(1366 x 927* / 1366 x 1004**)

* – measurements with the tabbed browser navigation bar** – measurements without any browser chrome for a web app

Note on Responsive Design for Mobile Devices

If you’re coding your site using responsive design in order to fit mobile devices well, you may have some sizing issues if you don’t tell the device not to zoom. The iPhone for example will try and best-fit websites causing issues if you’ve scaled your page correctly. You can fix this by adding this viewport metatag into the head of your site:

<meta name="viewport" content="initial-scale=1.0">

iPad Icons

When designing iPad icons you’ll notice there is a new size for the higher pixel density iPad Pro. If you’d like to add an icon to your site that people will see when they save it to their homescreen, take a look at my article on creating an iPhone icon, which includes all the iPad sizes you’ll need.